DIGITAL denizens, take note – coming later this year (in autumn) is Chord Electronics‘ flagship network music player, the DSX 1000. This one has a streaming engine coupled to Chord’s proprietary digital-to-analogue conversion technology that is based on its QDB76 DAC. All incoming audio data is re-clocked, thereby reducing the effects of jitter considerably.
The DSX 1000 has a colour screen on its front panel and can be controlled, apart from the handset, via a number of UPnP iOS or Android apps for relevant smart phones. It will play a variety of formats, including MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, ALAC and FLAC, with 24-bit/192kHz support where possible. Chord also plans to offer a custom version of the SongBook app for total control and easy set-up.
An onboard analogue volume control circuit (the same used in Chord’s Reference preamplifiers) allows highly accurate volume adjustment without the issues and low-level distortions that are the bane of digital volume controls in streaming products. There are also volume-controlled and line-level analogue outputs featuring XLR and RCA phono connections.
The indicative price has yet to be released, but start saving – ranging-topping products like this one make heavy demands on the wallet.
